The city at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay gets another recognition from a national source

Havre de Grace can add another honor to its list of recognitions for its downtown and waterfront.

Last month, BestChoiceReviews.org rated the historic town as the 11th best small town downtown in America, in a list of 50 such town centers.

The website recognized Havre de Grace's "long boardwalk" near Concord Point, among the oldest lighthouses in Maryland, and the downtown area as "an excellent place to eat, shop or just relax."

BestChoiceReviews defines small towns as those with 15,000 or fewer full-time residents, and it paid special attention to towns that were ranked as a "best small town," "best main street" or "best downtown" by a "respected ranking" body such as Parade Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine or Travel and Leisure.

The website noted Havre de Grace's recent selection as one of Smithsonian Magazine's top 20 small towns to visit.

Havre de Grace was ranked 12th on that list last spring.

Havre de Grace was one of two Maryland small-town downtowns to crack BestChoiceReviews' top-50 list. Berlin, in Worcester County, was ranked number 17.

Brigitte Peters, marketing and tourism manager for the city, said it is great for the city to be recognized, especially by an online source, with "how active the Internet is."

She noted BestChoiceReviews took into consideration the previous Smithsonian ranking.

"I think these things all kind of culminate and come together overall," she said. "We are in some very nice company."

Peters added the ranking offers a way for people who have not experienced the city to get a better idea of it.

The city's recognitions "won't dwindle away," she predicted, and it will keep climbing to 10 or even higher.